Monday, September 22, 2008

The New York Times As Democratic Party Shill

Steve Schmidt, a John McCain aide, said today that the New York Times is an "Obama advocacy organization." I see no reason to dispute that obvious point.

The mainstream media, led by the likes of the Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, and CNN, has been moving further leftward for at least the past 40 years. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the media outlets mentioned above and radical leftist blogs such as Daily Kos. All pretenses to objectivity are gone, and I think even the casual reader of the media is aware of that. It's never been so obvious as it is now, as the media seems uninterested in hiding its partisanship.

When did the leftward slant start? With the fallout from Watergate, the media tasted blood, and realized they had the power to bring down a president. Or did the slant begin earlier, with the radical changes that came along with the 60s? Or did the end of objectivity begin with the assassination of JFK?

Regardless of when it started, what could possibly cause the media to shift en masse back in the other direction and be respectable and trustworthy again? Newspaper circulation figures are rapidly declining: will a lack of subscriber and advertising dollars strangle some sense into the papers or has the agenda been enthroned to such a degree that not even the threat of oblivion will prod a regime change?

Or is it nothing more than a matter of the baby boomer generation gradually dying off to be replaced by a different mindset somewhere down the road?